Hernando fertilizer ban starts June 1 to protect waterways

Hernando County homeowners who reach for fertilizer this month are running into a strict summer cutoff. Products containing nitrogen or phosphorus are prohibited from June 1 through Sept. 30, and the county also bars fertilizer use within 25 feet of any body of water or wetland, requires a 30-day wait after seeding or laying sod, and says a deflector shield must be used with a broadcast spreader. Commercial applicators are not exempt.

The timing matters because June marks the start of the rainy season, when fertilizer left on a lawn is more likely to wash into storm drains, retention ponds, creeks and larger waterways. That runoff can feed algae blooms and contribute to water-quality problems that reach far beyond one yard line, including the kind of pollution that can worsen red tide and other coastal damage. In neighborhoods across Brooksville and the rest of Hernando County, the ordinance turns a routine lawn-care task into a local environmental issue.

UF/IFAS says Florida now has many local fertilizer ordinances, and its map and mobile app are meant to help residents check county-specific rules instead of assuming the same calendar applies everywhere. That warning is especially relevant for landscapers and homeowners who work across county lines in the Tampa Bay Area, where rules can differ from Hernando to Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota.

The educational gap is real. In a 2024 UF/IFAS study in Hernando County, residents were asked about their fertilizer practices and their views of the county’s updated ordinance, and most could not correctly answer follow-up questions about topics such as commercial application and how close fertilizer can be applied to water bodies. That leaves plenty of room for confusion, even as the county keeps pressing the message that greener grass is not the same thing as a healthier watershed.

Hernando County’s Board of County Commissioners voted on May 23, 2023, to revise the ordinance, and the county has continued public education around the rules since then. UF/IFAS research notes that since May 2000, at least 36 counties and 98 additional Florida municipalities have adopted official urban landscape fertilizer ordinances, a sign that the state’s lawn-care calendar is increasingly tied to water protection.